Many women have been conditioned from an early age to override that inner voice that says “no”. That gut feeling that this is wrong, we don’t want this. Our intuition. That conditioning infuses us with the culturally acceptable boundaries for who we are as women in our families, in business and in the world. We are all complicit in our own limitations. At some point we had to agree with it. But that conditioning chafes when you wake up to your dark side and realize what you have is not what you want and you can do something about it. That’s our work IN today.  The benefit of finding the “no” to open the door to “yes”.

We’re shifting gears a bit over the next few weeks as we take a look at some essentials for fit pro success. Now I know not all of us are fitness professionals. But we all are fitness and wellness consumers. And because of that I want to take some time to share some of the qualities that make good instructors better and great instructors great. These are things we can all look for when shopping for wellness options that work for us. 

Our work in today is the #1 boundary fit pro’s need to set and that we can look for as savvy consumers of fitness. 

I’m killing the dream of a full time fitness career today on The Work IN. Working full time as a fitness instructor or coach and making a living is not realistic.  At least not the way we traditionally think of full time in other careers. But there are ways to make your wellness work work for you no matter what kind of fit pro you are.

Let’s face it, the fitness and wellness industry attracts all kinds of people and there are all kinds of ways to succeed in it. The assumption is that people who work in wellness, from instructors and trainers to studio and gym owners, are well. That these folks have already done their work and they are grounded, compassionate entrepreneurs who have their ego in check and the best interest of their students and employees at heart.  Sadly that isn’t always the case. In fact I would suggest that many of us are in the wellness and fitness community because while that’s who we are striving to be, we aren’t there yet and we know it. Without strong and grounded mentors and collaborators who are willing to tell the truth about this industry we can spend a lot of time floundering around trying to be something and someone we are not. To fit the woo woo wellness cookie cutter insisting we want to help others yet refusing to help ourselves first. The truth is we can’t help anyone if we aren’t in business, we can’t stay in business if we don’t get paid, and we can’t get paid if we don’t give people results beyond the woo woo wackadoodle world of wellness. Our work IN today is a look at how we as fit pros can find a balanced approach to the business of the body by grounding our business in the body.

Trauma informed. It sounds good but that term isn’t well understood by the general public and has been diluted by the wellness community by click bait, quick buck certifications. There’s an assumption that because yoga is often recommended for ptsd, chronic pain, anxiety and depression that any and all yoga is trauma informed and that is simply not true. Today on The Work IN we’re taking a look at what being trauma informed means, what it looks like in yoga classes and why it’s something that all fit pros should understand. Today's discussion is going to focus on yoga but it applies across the fitness industry to all formats.

No matter how strong, fit or healthy we all get injuries from time to time. It’s petrifying for fit pros because so many of us are contractors so no work no pay. I don’t know any instructor who hasn’t had to deal with an injury from time to time. Sometimes you have to take time off. But you can take less time off if you know how to teach off the mat. Today on the work IN we’re talking about how to navigate recovery and maybe up our instructor skills along the way.